What now? Outlook is grim for injury-ravaged 49ers, who hope to still salvage season
They ran out of tape to secure ankles and surely ran low on ice bags to soothe assorted aches, strains, bruises and tears.
The 49ers on Sunday limped out of MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, with a victory to rid the residual stench of last week’s effort to open a season of Super Bowl intent. They did so with glum expressions.
This much we know: San Francisco has depth, a stout defense, a pretty darn good coach who kept it all together in Kyle Shanahan as bodies dropped right and left around him, and the 31-13 drubbing of the Jets served as the only feel-good outcome from an otherwise dreadful day at the office.
What now?
Injuries will define the 49ers’ season. This includes replacing irreplaceable pass rusher Nick Bosa, whom Shanahan said likely suffered a season-ending knee ligament tear. There are concerns about quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo’s ankle and the running backs with tender knees.
The best teams overcome such hurdles, certainly, but what 49ers team or elite NFL club can you recall started a season with so many crushing injuries right out of the gate?
The 49ers figured to right their season with a rout of the woeful Jets, but the toll was gruesome, and 49ers fans can hope the season didn’t trend hard south.
What gives? Certainly not the slippery turf at MetLife. Was that it? 49ers players and coaches wonder, and they are rightfully angry about it. No NFL surface should elicit this sort of concern, injury and outrage.
Were the 49ers undone by rotten luck and timing? Was it a lack of a preseason schedule as the NFL eliminated that schedule to better navigate the coronavirus pandemic? Was it a combination of all of it?
In this sport, no one stops to offer thoughts and prayers. No one will weep for the 49ers as they nurse their wounded. It’s on to the next game, and there are sudden mixed feelings on this, too.
San Francisco will return to the same venue to face the 0-2 and wholly uninspired Giants next Sunday.
That New York club is also hurting. The Giants lost star running back Saquon Barkley in a 17-13 loss to the Chicago Bears on a day dotted by injuries.
49ers players shared their concerns with Shanahan and other coaches about the MetLife surface before kickoff, the common theme that the field was “sticky.”
Natural grass fields such as Levi’s Stadium or Lambeau Field are not sticky. Grass and dirt give way when cleats dig in and there are cuts and collisions.
Field turf? Knees and ankles tend to give way as the turf remains fixed. The benefit of field turf is you don’t have to mow it. The counter is that such a surface mows down seasons and careers.
“Obviously, it’s great to get a win, but a lot of guys went down today,” 49ers linebacker Fred Warner told media via a Zoom news conference. “My heart goes out to them. It’s tough. It’s a tough game. To have this many injuries this early is a sucky situation, but it’s a next-man-up situation.”
Added Shanahan, “That’s as many knee injuries and ankle stuff and people getting caught on a turf as I’ve ever been a part of. It was something our guys were concerned about right away ... and unfortunately, we have to go back there next week.”
The 49ers were shorthanded before they boarded their flight in the Bay Area late Friday. They were without defensive anchor and soul in cornerback Richard Sherman and they did not have the heartbeat of the offense in tight end George Kittle. Injuries, of course.
By the time West Coast viewers wiped the sleep out of their eyes Sunday morning, Bosa had been pinned over backward, clutching a knee. He was carted off. A moment later, defensive lineman Soloman Thomas went down with a knee injury. He was also carted off. There is no more alarming a description than “carted off.”
Garoppolo labored through a bad ankle to move to 6-0 after suffering a regular-season loss. He bounced back from the Arizona game in Week 1 in which he overthrew or underthrew targets with a chance to win it.
Garoppolo led the 49ers to a 21-3 halftime lead over the backpedaling Jets by completing 14 of 16 passes for 132 yards and two touchdown strikes to Kittle’s replacement, Jordan Reed. Garoppolo did not play the second half.
Reed can relate to aches and pains. He suffered seven concussions with the Redskins.
Nick Mullens was solid in backing up Garoppolo, and he’ll have to be a lot more than that if Garoppolo’s high-ankle sprain lingers. Those injuries could last up to six weeks.
A knee ailment also sidelined 49ers running back Raheem Mostert, whose bolt into the NFL record books was dulled by his health. He was last season’s playoff hero on the 49ers inspired trek to the Super Bowl, and he got the 49ers up 7-0 against the Jets with an 80-yard touchdown sprint that San Francisco tackle Trent Williams described as, “a red blur.”
Mostert’s 76-yard touchdown reception against Arizona and his long score against the Jets allowed him to join Jim Brown as the only two in league history to score on a 75-yard rush and reception in the first two games of a season. Brown did so in 1963 with the Cleveland Browns.
Not to be left out, backup back Tevin Coleman also left with a knee strain. .
The 49ers stockpiled players in recent years, which includes Jerick McKinnon of Georgia Southern. He took off on a 55-yard run on a 3rd-and-31 play in the third quarter with Mullens at the helm. That set up a field goal that hit the upright and inched in for a 24-3 lead.
It was that sort of day. Next man up. Can it last? Against the Giants, certainly. But at this rate the 49ers will be calling Brown to see if he can come out retirement.
This story was originally published September 20, 2020 at 2:23 PM.